Sprint’s HTC Evo Shift 4G to cost $149 on contract starting January 9

Verizon is not the only US carrier that’s readying the launch of a new 4G phone at CES 2011. Sprint will do it, too – unsurprisingly, Sprint’s new handset will be the HTC Evo Shift 4G, previously known as HTC Knight and HTC Speedy.

Android Central has managed to obtain a sale ad from The Shack, which confirms the Evo Shift 4G’s price: $149.99 (with a new 2-yr contract agreement, of course).

The new Evo will come with a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a 3.6 inch WVGA touchscreen display, and an 800MHz processor.

The Evo Shift 4G should be available at Sprint starting January 9. We’ll see then if it runs Android 2.2 or Android 2.3 (let’s hope it’s the latter).